So Bunny and Sue had to stay and play around the automobile, not going far away. Though at first they missed the long tramps in the fields and through the woods, they were good children and did as they were bid. Besides, deep down in his heart, Bunny was just a little bit afraid of the lion, even though he had said he wanted to go hunting for him with Uncle Tad.
Two days passed, and the lion had not been found. The circus had gone on, leaving two men in the town near which the automobile was stranded. These men, with a spare cage which had been left with them, were ready to go out with nets and ropes and capture the lion as soon as any one should bring in word as to where it was hiding.
The countrymen and the boys, who had no other work to do, still kept up the lion hunt, some with dogs, but the big circus animal was well hidden.
"If he was playing hide-and-go-seek," said Bunny, "I'd holler 'Givie-up! Givie-up! Come on in free!' For I never could find him, he has hidden himself so good."
"Well, I wish he would go and hide himself far, far away," almost snapped Sue. "Then we could go around like we used to, and go on the lake."
"I wish so too," agreed Bunny.
It was getting rather tiresome for the children to stay so close to "home," as they called the automobile, but Mr. Brown said the new spring would arrive in a few days, and then they would travel on again, far from where the lion was hiding.
"And we can keep on looking for Fred Ward," said Bunny. In the excitement over the circus the runaway boy had been almost forgotten.
It was three days after the lion had broken loose, and evening was approaching, when Mrs. Jason, wife of the farmer who had been so kind to the Browns, came hurrying down to the automobile beside the road. She was out of breath and seemed much excited.
"Oh, Mr. Brown!" she exclaimed. "Do you know anything about doctoring?"